Art and Porn Divide – Waikato Times

Revelations that a New York artist is about to give birth in front of a live audience as part of her new installation The Birth of Baby X makes you wonder.

The New York Post has dubbed Marni Kotak “the Preggo Performer”, but the performance artist hopes life itself will be the star of her latest work………………

In 2002, “Nikki”, a porn actor, wanted to film the birth of her child [in the neonatal unit of Waikato Public Hospital], which was to be shown in a pornographic movie [directed by pornographer Steve Crow] with the planned title Ripe.

No-one considered that birth to be the highest form of art.

There was outrage and CYF even applied to the High Court for guardianship of the unborn child.

In his 45-page written judgment Justice Heath said he was satisfied that a demand for pornographic material focusing on aspects of pregnancy and birth existed.

The name given to this particular sexual fetish is maiesophilia.

His decision meant Waikato Hospital had to back down on a decision to ban filming on its premises, but then Health Minister Annette King stepped in, using her statutory powers to ban the filming.

“It just offends me,” she said.

“It is not appropriate for a public hospital to be used to make pornography. I’ve had absolutely 100 percent support in this one.”

One such supporter was Waikato University psychology professor Jane Ritchie, who described the prospect of filming the birth for a porn movie as repugnant.

“It is not like she is doing it in New York,” she said, clearly unaware that nearly 10 years later, someone would do it in New York, albeit not for a porn movie, but still for a public performance.”

Whatever the merits or otherwise of porn movies being considered art, the story does present an interesting view of the different approaches in the two countries to what is considered art.

Film maker Steve Crow said the movie idea was “just something that evolved”.

“The idea for a film from conception right through to birth.”

If that was said by anyone other than a porn movie maker, it would likely be considered an entirely valid proposition.

If Crow had said the movie would “recontextualise the everyday act of giving birth to a child into a work of performance art” he might have got away with it.

In the end, the filming never took place and Nikki and her “porn baby” – as critics dubbed the child – got on with their lives in a way that Kotek would likely consider to be a continuing performance.

“Real life is the best performance art,” she said.

Kotak has no fear for her or her baby’s safety, despite the unusual birth environment, confident the gallery is as safe as a hospital. She’s already planned her next work, the inevitable Raising Baby X, in which she will “re-contextualise the everyday act of raising a child into a work of performance art”.